Ice Cream Window: ‘Different, but still the same’

By Stephanie Meditz

[email protected] 

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ice Cream Window served scoops of happiness to the community such that it became a permanent fixture. 

Intended as a three-week pop-up in Karlssonwilker design studio, the shop brought Ridgewood’s original immigrant populations together by experimenting with traditional cultural flavors in its ice cream. 

Karlssonwilker, originally headquartered in Manhattan, moved to Ridgewood when a developer bought out multiple neighboring properties. 

“We knew that our days were numbered as well, and that they would tear down these whole buildings and build a skyscraper,” said Elisabeth Smolarz, Karlssonwilker photographer and founder of Ice Cream Window. 

Born in Poland and raised in Germany, Smolarz knew of the large Polish and German-speaking communities in Ridgewood, as well as its overall population increase over the last few years. 

With the help of some friends in the area, she bought the new Karlssonwilker design studio space on Woodward Avenue, along with the apartment above it. 

While renovating the building’s facade, Smolarz recalled her time living in Gowanus and saw the need for some kind of outdoor component. 

“It had a bench outside. It was very dark inside, so I would oftentimes sit outside and work or read,” she said. “What was lovely about that, being outside, was that I met all the neighbors immediately. I knew everyone on my block within a few months.” 

This goal is what prompted the installment of a window, and for a while, Smolarz wondered what to do with it. 

In 2019, she visited Lady Moo Moo in Bedford-Stuyvesant, an ice cream shop that serves its ice cream out of a window for customers to eat outside. 

“I tasted the ice cream and said, ‘Wow. This ice cream is amazing. I think this is the best ice cream I’ve ever had,’” Smolarz said. 

Smolarz’s daughter was born in January 2020, followed by the start of the pandemic. 

“Motherhood just became extremely lonely,” she said. “There were no mom groups. We had a digital one and it was nice, but you just couldn’t really connect with anybody.” 

During her many walks with her new baby that summer, she thought to follow Lady Moo Moo’s business model and temporarily use Karlssonwilker’s window to serve ice cream at a social distance. 

In August 2020, Ice Cream Window was born as a pop-up, with the ice cream delivered by Lady Moo Moo. 

Smolarz met many of her new neighbors in Ridgewood, and after the pop-up ended, they approached her on the street and asked when she would sell ice cream again. 

By popular demand, she agreed to reopen the shop for at least another year. 

Smolarz solicited the help of other local businesses such as Topos Bookstore Cafe, Millers and Makers, Porcelain and Plein Air to turn Ice Cream Window into a permanent shop. 

This past summer, Ice Cream Window collaborated with the longtime Ridgewood staple, Rudy’s Pastry Shop to sell ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate chip cookies. 

“That’s what’s beautiful about Ridgewood, that it is a community,” she said. “You can ask anyone for help, and people will help you.” 

Smolarz gives back to the community in various ways, such as cooking traditional Polish dishes at Woodbine’s free Sunday dinners. 

Most notably, though, she works to ensure that Ice Cream Window brings something new to Ridgewood without alienating its longtime residents, rather making them feel at home. 

“The flavors relate to the community, and to us personally,” she said, referencing her husband and the Karlssonwilker team. “We kind of channel our childhoods here.” 

Waldmeister, a traditional German flavor, has been well loved in Ridgewood for a long time.

For instance, one of Ice Cream Window’s specials is waldmeister, or sweet woodruff, a popular German flavor that was served in Ridgewood a long time ago. 

Ridgewood’s older Gottschee population can easily recognize the pumpkin seed oil that distinguishes Ice Cream Window’s styrian ice cream. 

“We have family in Vienna…so we first found out about it in Vienna when we were cooking dinner and then they served us vanilla ice cream with roasted pine nuts and a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil,” Smolarz said. 

Whenever she goes to visit them, she brings back authentic pumpkin seed oil for the ice cream. 

Ice Cream Window serves huge amounts of joy through one small window.

Hris, a flavor based on an Icelandic malt chocolate candy, is a nod to Hjalti Karlsson’s Icelandic heritage. 

Smolarz’s favorite flavor, “mak,” is based on a Polish poppy seed roll with a sugary lemon glaze called makowiec. 

Ice Cream Window also offers linden-flavored ice cream reminiscent of Smolarz’s childhood, but only during certain months in the spring.

“There was this moment, like end of May, early June, when all the linden trees were blooming in Ridgewood,” Smolarz said. “And I just love the smell so much. So during that time, we always make linden ice cream just to celebrate the season.” 

Other flavors in the rotation include dulce de leche, lucuma, lychee, matcha and red bean along with the typical vanilla and chocolate. 

Because Ice Cream Window uses such a small space within Karlssonwilker, its flavors are on rotation. 

“We’re trying to have flavors that kind of go beyond what’s familiar to us,” Smolarz said. “We kind of think, what else would the community like? And it’s very easy, Queens is the most diverse place on this planet, I think.” 

Ice Cream Window’s Instagram account, @icecreamwindow, has been an important tool to learn more about community members and foster a fun atmosphere. 

As a photographer for Karlssonwilker and photography instructor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Smolarz loves to see customers post pictures of their ice cream. 

The star of the account, however, is a bright orange puppet, lovingly called “the window puppet,” that makes an appearance in every post announcing the flavors of the week. 

“Maybe next year when we get really good at puppetry, we’ll have a puppet theater for the kids,” Smolarz said. 

Because of her own daughter, Smolarz always works to include children in the fun of Ice Cream Window. 

She especially loves to see them try new, unknown flavors when vanilla or chocolate are not offered. 

“It’s always very sweet how, next time they come, they say, ‘I want a scoop of lucuma,’ or ‘I want a scoop of waldmeister,’” she said. “This is what’s amazing about ice cream. It just brings you a lot of joy.” 

Ice Cream Window will continue to serve joy to the Ridgewood community on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. until the temperature drops.

Fogo de Chão partners with Queens Together to feed locals

First Queens location to open in Elmhurst later this year

By Jessica Meditz

[email protected]

Fogo de Chão, an internationally renowned restaurant founded in Southern Brazil in 1979, will soon make its Queens debut.

Later this year, the restaurant will open a brand new location next to Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst—marking its first Queens location, fifth in New York and 67th globally.

In preparation and celebration of the upcoming opening, Fogo de Chão partnered with Queens Together, an organization formed during the COVID-19 lockdown to address food insecurity.

Last Friday, the two groups came together at First Baptist Church of Elmhurst to provide fresh, high quality meals to over 1,500 community residents.

Fogo de Chão and volunteers worked together to provide people with meats butchered and prepared on their full-sized mobile churrasco grills.

Folks enjoyed their signature churrasco-style meats—Fraidinha and Picanha—along with mixed greens and their well-loved potato salad.

“Coming to Queens is such an amazing opportunity for us because it’s the most culturally diverse city and borough, and that’s what we love to do at Fogo,” Katie Calvin, general manager of Fogo de Chão, said.

“Especially for people who are from Latino or Hispanic countries, they often don’t have somewhere to go that feels like home,” she continued. “That’s why we love that we’re coming to Queens; we’re really excited.”

In addition to the Queens event, Fogo de Chão is committed to providing for the communities they serve, and arranges for mobile events to take place across the U.S.

Queens Together was also proud of their presence at the event, continuing their mission of empowering, representing and supporting the local restaurant community, as well as Queens residents in need.

We’re just trying to be a forward-facing program. We try to close all the gaps and connect people with food and services, and with restaurants in general, our biggest thing is trying to help them stay in business,” Devin Kloss, media director at Queens Together, said.

“Our goal is just to be somebody that they can call when they have a question, and then either we’ll find out the answer, or we’ll find the person to get them the answer,” he continued. “That’s really our goal.”

Mets third baseman Eduardo Escobar helped prepare food at the event.

Also in attendance was third baseman for the Mets, Eduardo Escobar, who is a big fan of the restaurant.

“It was actually a really organic, beautiful connection that was made with Eduardo. He started to eat at Fogo, and we started to hear him saying, ‘Fogo power,’ and ‘I play better after Fogo,’” Calvin said.

“Now we have luckily have a really tight-bonded relationship, and a percentage of our sales go to his foundation, where he provides to kids mostly in Venezuela with baseball materials, opportunities, food and supplies.”

Escobar spoke fondly of Fogo de Chão as he helped prepare the meats that went out into the community, and is happy that the restaurant so close to his heart is now physically close to him, where he plays baseball.

“The food is just so delicious, and I love everything about it. The people are also so nice,” Escobar said.

“Everything they’re doing to help the community is so important and special, and this is an amazing opportunity,” he continued. “God bless this restaurant. The food helps me feel at home.”

Food Bank’s mobile pantry to serve Ozone Park

The Food Bank for New York City brought its Mobile Food Pantry Program to Ozone Park last week, along with an $80,000 donation from Stop & Shop to help keep the pantry stocked for weekly distributions through the summer.

Director of Special Projects for the nonprofit food bank Chantel Peters helped oversee the Mobile Food Pantry Program, situated at the corner where 101st Avenue and Liberty Avenue meet in southeast Queens, which is expected to feed 200-to-300 families each week between June 24th and August 26th.

“The Food Bank is here because our communities are struggling during this time and we want to ensure that folks don’t have to make a choice between their normal household responsibilities and food,” Peters said. “We’ve had some hardships throughout the Queens neighborhoods.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, approximately 9.7 percent of Queens residents were food insecure. Today, the Food Bank for New York City projects that number to be nearly 16 percent of the borough, or 360,000 residents, having difficulty putting food on the table.

In 2021, the nonprofit distributed more than 121 million meals.

It’s a “360 degree” approach to tackling food insecurity according to Peters, who said that the Food Bank for New York City is equipped to try and end the cycle of poverty. With tax programs, community kitchens and pantries, along with nutrition programs promoting healthy cooking, the nonprofit aims to get to the root of food insecurity.

Peters said that instead of utilizing large-scale pop-up distributions, the nonprofit decided to do smaller and more dependable distributions in communities throughout the borough.

At the weekly pantries, food including proteins, whole grains, and dairy, as well as culturally relevant Halal food items will be distributed. Fresh fruit, produce and leafy greens will also be available in a farmer’s market style distribution. No identification or personal information is needed for food distribution, all that is asked is the size of the household.

Mohammad Khan, executive director of nonprofit Cityline Ozone Park Civilian Patrol (COPCP), can attest to the rising need of his own diverse neighborhood.

“Ozone Park… where nearly everyone is an immigrant,” Khan said.

The neighborhood of Ozone Park is nestled just to the east of Brooklyn neighborhoods Cypress Hills and East New York, and surrounded by Queens neighborhoods South Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Howard Beach.

“The needs in this community are not just Ozone Park’s needs,” Khan said. “It’s also the needs of the areas around Ozone Park.

In COPCP’s own weekly and monthly food pantries, Khan has seen the lines grow over the past two years.

“The need has grown and we’re here to fulfill that gap,” he said. “We’re here to make sure that our community is taken care of by us.”

MidVille Kiwanis hosts 10th Annual Food Drive

Last week, the Kiwanis Club of Middle Village distributed food baskets to the community ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
“The Middle Village Kiwanis has delivered food to over 1,000 families over the last 10 years, sticking to its core mission of helping one person and one family at a time and giving people something to smile about,” said Alphonse Gentile, a senior vice president at Cross County Savings Bank and event coordinator of the food drive.
The 10th annual food drive was held at a Cross County branch at 80-10 Eliot Avenue. Recipients of this year’s drive included United Methodist Church and St. Margaret Catholic Church, both in Middle Village, Notre Dame Catholic Academy in Ridgewood, and Saints Joachim & Anne Church and Little Sisters of the Poor in Queens Village.
“Everyone should be able to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones, even when times are tough,” said J. Nicolois, who sits on the club’s Fundraising Committee. “Middle Village Kiwanis takes pride in collecting and distributing food for the holiday season.”

10,000 bagels donated to La Jornada Food Pantry

A donation of 10,000 bagels arrived at La Jornada Food Pantry on Monday morning, courtesy of Bagels by Bell, REIL Capital and the Queens Chamber of Commerce.
At its peak during the pandemic, La Jornada Food Pantry, located in the Bland Houses Community Center in Flushing, served upwards of 10,000 families a week, about ten times the need than before the pandemic started.
The donation of bagels and bialys was welcomed by Pedro Rodriguez, executive director of La Jornada. The food pantry has been serving the Flushing community and fighting food insecurity for 13 years, and more recently serving the thousands of families who have been impacted by both the pandemic and extreme weather.
“It’s scary,” said Rodriguez. “In the richest city in the world, the richest country in the world, people may have died of hunger.”
Public officials celebrated the donation of bagels that will be distributed out by La Jornada, while speaking to the hardships seen by the business community and the food pantry over the last year and a half.
In addition to being located in the epicenter of the pandemic, La Jornada suffered damage from Hurricane Ida earlier this month when its ground-level pantry was flooded with two feet of water.
“We have seen the inequities that families in Queens face and how our constituents have been detrimentally affected,” said Congresswoman Grace Meng. “Our families here in Queens have gone through so much. It really means a lot that we have other small businesses in the private sector looking in and stepping up to help our community.”
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz praised partnership between the chamber, Bagels by Bell of Oceanside, and Manhattan-based REIL Capitol.
“We would not be able to do this if it wasn’t for everyone working together,” said Cruz. “Governing should be something that is done cooperatively.”
After touring the community room, Cruz lent some hope to a community that has seen small businesses and residents suffer due to the pandemic.
“Our beloved neighborhood saw thousands of people get sick and die, thousands of businesses closed and many didn’t reopen,” she said. “Unfortunately, many will probably close before the end of the year
“It’s disheartening, because sometimes you feel like no matter how much you do, it’s never going to help,” she added. “But I’m here to tell you that you can help.”

Catholic Charities hosts pop-up food pantry in Cypress Hills

Since the pandemic began last March, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has been organizing pop-up food pantry events throughout the two boroughs.
This past Thursday, they set up a food pantry in the parking lot of Blessed Sacrament Church in Cyprus Hills.
“We have been taking people in since 8:30 a.m.,” explained Debbie Hampson, senior director of Community Health and Wellness Services for Catholic Charities, during the event. “We usually serve about 800 families.”
Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens operates 49 food pantries. However, when the pandemic hit last spring, the group saw a 1,000 percent increase in food requests from families in need.
In response, they began organizing the pop-up pantry events, and have since distributed over $3.4 million in food assistance to families experiencing food insecurity as a result of COVID-19.
“At the beginning we were doing this every week,” Hampson explained, “and at that time we were serving close to 1,500 families.”
Each pop-up food pantry event requires a great amount of planning and organization. Members of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens and other volunteers fill bags with prepackaged foods the night before.
During the event, the group distributes the pre-filled bags, as well as fresh produce, dairy, and meat items on a first-come, first-served basis.
“It’s almost like a farmer’s market,” Hampson said as the group distributed food to attendees.
In addition to food, the pop-up event offers free COVID-19 testing and possibly COVID-19 vaccines in the near future. Catholic Charities has also partnered with the insurance provider BlueCross BlueShield, the food assistance program SNAP, and the COVID-19 emotional support helpline NY Project Hope, all of which had a presence at Thursday’s event.
“Besides being able to provide food, we want to let people know that they are not alone,” said Hampson. “We have counseling for folks because we know a lot of people have been depressed and anxious during the pandemic.”
Despite the ongoing challenges the pandemic poses, Thursday’s event very much felt like a celebration, with a DJ playing radio hits and taking requests.
Additionally, a large number of volunteers were also present, including members of the Carpenter’s Union, EJ Electric, and many parishioners from Blessed Sacrament Church.
Former Brooklyn state senator Marty Golden was in attendance as well, assisting with the food distribution and cracking jokes with the other volunteers.
“People were lined up around the corner earlier today,” he said. “We need to be there for people who are struggling during this difficult time.”

While some volunteers continued to man the food line, others went to the Blessed Sacrament Rectory for a special lunch buffet organized by the church. During the meal, the Star caught up with
“Food is a part of the community,” said John Gonzalez, an organizer for Catholic Charities. “We are happy that we can share it with our volunteers and local families.”
Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens is currently holding pop-up food pantry events every other Thursday, alternating between locations in Brooklyn and Queens. The next event is tentatively scheduled for May 6 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Astoria.

For more information on all of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens food pantries and programming, visit their website at ccbq.org.

Cart check

Dear Editor,
I am in total recognition of food carts that don’t have a license, but they must be of a certain size and length. Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has received much backlash on this, but I have to agree with him – partly.
They should not block subway stairways or create noise and pollution.
Some of these carts serve great food, but they must not be located in front of restaurants.
This counts also for sellers of personal protection equipment, clothes, and other products that block sidewalks. In Flushing, I feel like I am going through a crowded flea market.
There is no enforcement in the area, and I can understand Mr. Yang’s disgust.
Sincerely,
Randy Savitt

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